1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention is generally directed to child safety seats, and more particularly to a child safety seat with a height adjustable harness.
2. Description of Related Art
Child safety seats, or car seats, are well known for placement on a vehicle seat in order to safely position, secure, and restrain a child in the vehicle. Child safety seats are also well known to employ an on-board or dedicated harness system. A typical five-point harness system often employs a crotch strap, a pair of lap belts, and a pair of shoulder straps. The various straps and belts are connected to one another at a latch or buckle. The length of the various straps and belts is adjustable in order to accommodate children of different size and to accommodate a growing child.
One problem with such harness systems is that the shoulder strap height, or harness height, can be difficult to adjust or reposition in order to accommodate children of different height. As a child grows, the shoulder strap height should be raised in order to safely and comfortably restrain the child. A number of seat manufacturers have attempted to address this problem. Unfortunately, such harness systems on such child safety seats are often still difficult to adjust and operate. This can discourage a user of the seat from making the necessary adjustments when needed.
Many child safety seats employ slots in the seat back through which the shoulder harness straps are routed. Height adjustment is accomplished by selecting the appropriate slots and threading the harness webbing through the selected slots. However, a user must uninstall and then reinstall the harness when adjusting the harness height. This can be difficult for the user because the seat has to be removed from the vehicle and then turned over in order to access the harness. The harness must then be withdrawn from the current pair of slots and only then can the webbing be rerouted or threaded through a different pair of selected slots. The seat must then be reinstalled in the vehicle, which can require re-anchoring the seat to the vehicle seat anchors. Making this task even more difficult is that the slots in the seat back are often covered by soft goods or other seat components. The slots also are often quite small in size. The user must locate and identify the correct slots and then manipulate the webbing of the straps through the correct slots.
A number of car seats with another type of harness height adjustment solution are available in the market place. Manufacturers such a Cosco, Evenflo, Britax, and Indiana Mills have attempted to address the above-noted problems by modifying the slot-based approach to harness height adjustment. Such seats have harness straps that are fed through slots in a control panel or other structure of the seat before reaching the seating area. The harness straps remain engaged with the slots of the harness control panel or other structure during and after the harness height adjustment. The control panel or other structure moves along the seat back surface in order to reposition the harness straps. The control panel is typically coupled to a part of the seat back and can be difficult to access because it is hidden beneath the seat soft goods, is covered by structures of the seat back, and the like. Use of the control panel approach also renders height adjustment, manufacturing, assembling, and cleaning of the seat, as well as other operations involving the harness straps more difficult and complex. The control panel approach increases the complexity of the car seat, which increases the cost and complexity of manufacturing, and assembling the seats.
The known child safety seats with height adjustable harness systems also typically require that the harness latch and/or the harness tension mechanisms be actuated or disengaged before adjusting the height of the harness. These known solutions also complicate the design and implementation of soft goods onto the child safety seat. This can make it more difficult for a consumer to remove the soft goods for cleaning and can make it more difficult to reinstall the soft goods on the seat.